Carolyn Davis is a member of the Editorial Board

Here is one thing to know about Jennifer Anyayo - or most Acholi people, for that matter. Jennifer is her Christian first name, and Anyayo is her Acholi first name. There are no family last names among the Acholi people of northern Uganda.

So call her Jennifer. Call her Anyayo. Call her by her nickname of Yayo. Just don't call her late for American Idol or the Bachelor.

Jennifer, 15, came to Philadelphia on Dec. 24, 2005, with her medical guardian, Abitimo Rebecca Odongkara, to get medical treatment for severe burns on her face, chest and left hand. She suffered those wounds when rebels came to her village in Uganda about six years ago and set her family's home on fire.

She is among thousands of children who have been hurt, killed and kidnapped during a war in northern Uganda that has gone on for nearly 20 years. Adults around the world have done little to protect these children, and so there are many Jennifers, girls and boys, who have been maimed in this conflict.

Only Anyayo, though, has come to Philadelphia, and she is undergoing treatment by top plastic and reconstructive surgeon Craig Dufresne in his Chevy Chase, Md., office and Fairfax Hospital, INOVA Health Systems, in Fairfax, Va.

Jennifer is one of five siblings. Her older sister, Alice Laker, is 17. She has two brothers: Okeny, 7, and Kalokwerka, 5. Her little sister, Sharon Achan, is about 3. That probably explains why Jennifer beams when she sees a young child.

Her brothers and sisters live with her mother in the northern Ugandan town of Kitgum. They used to reside in a crowded and dirty camp for people displaced by the war, but Abitimo Odongkara recently arranged for them to move to a small apartment.

Their father died on the day of the attack on the family's home. Jennifer's family has told her that he was in the house when rebels arrived but was shot trying to leave.

She does not seem to remember a lot about her father. Or she doesn't want to think about him because the pain of his death is still too fierce. Either way, she is not sure what he did to earn money. Perhaps he was a farmer.

Jennifer enjoys living with Odongkara's family in Philadelphia. But she misses her own. She knows that in Uganda now, school is beginning again after a long break. She is worried that her big sister won't have enough money for school fees and won't be able to attend classes.

She did not show that concern - at first, anyhow - in her latest phone call to her mother. Daughter and mother giggled in delight for many minutes before settling into serious conversation.

Jennifer has mostly been eating Acholi foods. She likes porridge made of millet flour, the greens of black-eyed peas, and a meal of tiny fishes.

She is slowly, cautiously trying American food. After each doctor's appointment, she is taken to a restaurant in Chevy Chase called La Madeleine, and she orders chicken friand – which the café describes as "puff pastry filled with chicken, mushrooms and béchamel sauce, then topped with mushroom sauce."

Like so many Americans, Jennifer is a faithful viewer of several reality shows - American Idol, The Bachelor, and Dancing with the Stars. She laughs when asked if she thinks bachelor Travis is cute. She laughs much, much harder when she hears the howls of Idol contestants attempting to sing.

She has no ambitions of being a musician or a television star. But Jennifer loves to sing and dance. Perhaps while she is in the United States, she will learn some new steps and tunes she can teach her family back in Uganda.